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Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Mimicry is everywhere.

It works better on a broad leaf than beige stucco near the backdoor to a bar. But, so many of us are suckers for lights. And bars.

Let's look even closer.

Camouflage in a cryptic bird-dropping pattern is not entirely uncommon within the moth taxa. There are numbers of very small moths in a particular genus that do it quite well.

The Gage Hotel is excellent for observing moths during the day due to the numerous lights affixed to stucco, and adobe, walls. Many species remain at rest for atleast part of the following day. This particular corner, generally where only staff meander, is always one of the better for me.

(Xerociris wilsonii) Wilson's Wood-Nymph moth

This cryptic patterning mimicking avian urates and feces gives this moth a better chance of not being snacked by those swallows above and around it.

I wonder if an Alfred Hitchcock movie would have turned out differently if leading cast-members could have pulled this off.